I was originally hired as an Emergency Medical Technician by a hospital. After a few years the local Fire Department took over EMS. The only thing that changed is that the taxpayers had to pay to have our ambulances repainted and we all got new uniforms.
One day while driving my partner and I get flagged down; the man’s truck had caught fire. We could see visible flames between the cab and the box. My partner grabbed the fire extinguisher on the console and I ran around to the back and got the fire extinguisher from the rear compartment. We doused the flames before the engine arrived. We made our report on the radio and went back to the station to restock.
We were later told that the fire extinguishers should only be used if our vehicle was on fire, and not for civilians.
So, we were supposed to sit in Fire uniforms, in a Fire vehicle, and not put out a fire.
We didn’t get written up or lose pay, so it was a wash.
But yes, it would have been funny to do that.
Missed the opportunity to watch them get chewed out by the fire department leadership.
Could it have been some sort of liability thing? Like the nurses at my old work weren’t allowed to do any sort of first aid stuff to colleagues unless they were the official attendants. It’s like a not your job, you’ll get sued if anything goes wrong kind of thing.
I didn’t stop to greet some customers as I walked in with a cane for the third week in a row due to nerve damage.
I wasn’t on the clock, we didn’t have a uniform, no name tag, nobody would even know I work there until I put my shit on after I clock in.
By that time I had made it a habit of recording every interaction with management, so I just pulled out my phone, hit the record button, and asked “so to be clear, are you officially reprimanding me for NOT doing work off the clock?” and that immediately shut him up.
Managers get awfully pensive when they have recording devices capturing them.
Depending on where you live, you might be better off not scaring your employers with a visible recording device.
Why not let the law figure out what your bosses were asking for? In the US, attorneys will take these cases for free and be paid only if you are.
I found this out when Christian Selig (the Apollo app for Reddit developer) announced he had audio showing Reddit lied to him.
Worked for a small business which did electronics repair, and which had recently picked up e-waste recycling. Our boss, the owner, was known for getting baked out of his mind and imagining things which he needed to tell his staff, and would think the next day that he had actually told that thing to his staff. Just to give you an idea of the kind of guy the owner is, we had two company-wide group texts for the 11 people on payroll. One had everyone, and the other had everyone except the owner. The owner never knew about that one, and honestly that arrangement was a necessity to keep turnover low and by extension the business from running aground.
Anyway, my coworker is talking to a customer at the counter, who is dropping off an old television to be recycled. The customers leave, and the owner walks in.
Owner: “Wait, is this a plasma? We can’t take this!”
Coworker: “why not?”
Owner: “We can’t do plasmas! We’ve never done plasmas!” sees the stack of plasma screen televisions “What the fuck?! Who accepted these?”
Me: “Dude, you’ve never mentioned that we can’t do anything with plasmas before.”
Owner: “Yeah! It was in the class on e-waste recycling.”
Coworker: “You were the only one who took that because you didn’t want to fly anyone else to Vegas for a four day conference.”
At this point I think the owner started to realize he hadn’t actually disseminated anything other than the logistical aspects of the e-waste business to the employees.
Owner: “So, what, no one knows what we actually accept for e-waste?”
Me: “I don’t think so, man.”
The owner looks at me with obvious anger and with that look that says he’s about to blame me for something.
Owner: “So, what y’all want a fucking list or something?”
Coworker: “Yeah, that would be great, actually.”
The owner turned red, looked about ready to angry-cry, and walked out. Went home and got baked. I don’t think he ever actually put a list together. The e-waste thing fell through a few months later after I left because the warehouse he was renting and illegally living out of was like a quarter the size needed, and there wasn’t any money left for processing equipment. He franchised a corporate brand like a year later.
Fuck you, Matt, you goddamn moron.
I like how the company-wide group text tidbit had nothing to do with the rest of the story.
Reminded me of watching the extended cut of LoTR, where some scenes were just fluff.
Yeah, I guess it reads weird. I think I intended it as a early barometer to his character, but didn’t expand or lampshade it properly. Oh well. It’s a lemmy comment, not a graded CW essay.
I was written up for not being happy, and again for smiling too much later in the year. I’m a software test engineer.
I can imagine that writing unit tests all day long 24/5 may not make you smile enough at first and after while it can make you smile in scary way.
I’m an autist, following rules is mega easy. Boss says smile, I smile until he says to stop.
In my company the test engineers write and perform system-level tests. Unit testing is up to the developer.
I reported the multinational company CTO for not being able to keep his hands off me (I’m a guy btw) and a load of other employees. That report came on top of other reports of abuse, fraud, and briberies.
Mind you, this company wa so about protecting whistleblowers that I had to sign a contract about it. VPs were outraged and vowed to protect me.
I made the report, week later called into an emergency meeting with the CTO and head of HR is there too and I’m fired. I sued, won, and in that time learned that the CTO was fired the next day because, amongst things, he fired me. Even so, they didn’t cancel my firing, didn’t rehire me, because now I was toxic.
Never trust anyone in big companies. Never trust their contracts, never trust their words.
